Barbara Mathes Gallery is pleased to present Tadaaki Kuwayama: Early Work, 1962-1975. Since his arrival in New York from Japan in 1958, Kuwayama has produced nuanced, colorful paintings that transcend easy categorization. His subtle yet bold compositions present viewers with a unique exploration of color, surface, geometry and structure. Though related to traditional Japanese nihonga painting, Color Field and Minimalism, Kuwayama’s investigations are best considered on their own terms. This exhibition will focus on Kuwayama’s intriguing metallic paintings from the 1960s and 1970s, which combine reflective acrylic surfaces with subdivided aluminum frames.

The works presented in this exhibition were essential to the establishment of Kuwayama’s reputation in New York during the 1960s and 1970s. After immigrating to the United States, Kuwayama studied at the Art Students League in New York where he freed himself from the strictures of the nihonga tradition and, by the early 1960s, became associated with Donald Judd, Yayoi Kusama, Dan Flavin and Frank Stella, among others. Exhibitions at the Green Gallery in New York (1961, 1962) and the Galerie Bruno Bischofberger, Zurich (1967, 1968) brought Kuwayama international attention, and his work was shown in several historic exhibitions, including Systemic Painting at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (1966) and New Shapes of Color at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (1966). This exhibition presents an opportunity to reexamine Kuwayama’s colorful and multifaceted work of the 1960s and 1970s.

Kuwayama’s paintings create surprisingly complex relationships and effects within and between works. Untitled (TK6924-’66) (1966), for example, presents monochromatic panels of metallic pink divided by a vertical aluminum strip that connects with the square frame. Though suggestive of a diptych, the aluminum frame and strip contain the work as a single painting/object. Acrylic metallic paint reflects light that moves with the viewer; however, the artist’s use of the airbrush distances his hand from these surface effects. Kuwayama repeats these relationships in four related works in different colors, asking us to consider their relationship to the ensemble. Other works in this exhibition contain a variety of surfaces and geometries, yet modulations of form and color must be considered individually and as a compositional whole, reflecting Kuwayama’s statement that “ideas, thoughts, philosophy, reasons, meanings, even the humanity of the artist, do not enter into the work at all. There is only the art itself. That is all.”

“I want to have an adventure, and that means I want to be free to make art in any way, shape, or form that is art to me. So, that’s what I’ve lived.”
- Ron Cooper in conversation with Rebecca McGrew: Taos, NM, 17 December 2009

Franklin Parrasch Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of recent works by New Mexico-based artist Ron Cooper. Not keen to indulge the expectations of others, Cooper is a true Renaissance man: artist, homesteader, producer of superlative mezcal, vehicle enthusiast, lone wolf. It’s no wonder his work deftly rides the fine line between the “Light and Space” and “Finish Fetish” monikers, both conceptually hard hitting and eye candy-tasty. Cooper - like his contemporaries Robert Irwin, James Turrell, and Doug Wheeler - is fluent in the uniquely Southern Californian minimalist visual language; yet he does not limit his art making to any certain boundaries.

Cooper emerged into the Los Angeles art scene in the mid-1960s following study at Chouinard Art Institute with fellow students Mary Corse, Allan Ruppersberg, and Wheeler. At this time, Cooper directed his focus upon two geometric forms: the square – shallow, poured-resin constructions he named “Light Traps”, and the rectangle – exaggerated “Vertical Bar” forms made of Plexiglas, upon which smooth, translucent mica-laden pigments were applied “like the exhalation of a breath.” Impelled to make pieces relating to a human scale, and inspired by the full-swing growth of 1960s SoCal tract housing developments, Cooper conceived of these bodies of work with stock building materials in mind. The “Light Trap” pieces consider the depth of 2x4 framing with standard drywall facing; the “Vertical Bar” series, the actual measurements of the common 4x4 lumber stock.

These bars, acknowledged early on by visionary gallerist Richard Bellamy, were first exhibited in a group show entitled “Arp to Artschwager” (cur. Bellamy at Noah Goldowsky Gallery, 1967); soon thereafter, they were the focus of a solo exhibition at Los Angeles’ ACE Gallery. The current grouping of Vertical Bars in this exhibition recall the proportions and structure of the early bars; in this series, however, Cooper has employed contemporary surface pigments that allow greater potential and range in their chatoyant properties.

Ron Cooper will be on view January 29 – March 13 at Franklin Parrasch Gallery, 53 East 64th Street, New York. An opening reception will take place from 6-8p on January 29; the artist will be present. For images, biography, or further information, please contact the gallery at info@franklinparrasch.com or at 212-246-5360 during business hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 10a-6p.

An original member of the Pattern and Decoration movement, applied and decorative art practices are often the basis for Kozloff’s large-scale public and fine art works. Since the 1990s, she has been using maps and globes to explore issues of social and institutional injustice.

Prints for this series were made with Fran Flaherty at the Digital Art Studio, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh; additional prints were produced at the Advanced Media Studio, NYU with the Morgan R. Levy.

Ubu Gallery is pleased to present Judit Reigl: Annus Mirabilis, Annus Horribilis an exhibition of paintings, drawings, and collages by the Hungarian-born artist dating from the 1950s. Nearly all of the works on view were created during the two-year period of 1954-1955. For her biographers, 1954 is considered the annus mirabilis in Judit Reigl’s career, the year of her discovery by André Breton. Touted by Breton as the great hope for the future of painting—with Max Ernst lending support in the wings—Reigl's presence was finally noted with her first solo exhibition at the Galerie a l’Étoile Scellée in November 1954. Reigl, however, remembers 1954 as annus horribilis: the bleakest period of her life, marred by personal distress—alienated by her close friend, her mother's distant sickness, and the loss, albeit temporary, of her partner—which she writes off as chaos.

Yoshii Gallery is delighted to announce the first exhibition of Polaroids by Sante D’Orazio, spanning thirty years of fashion photography and portraiture, featuring an extraordinary range of celebrated subjects.
Sante D’Orazio is a photographer and artist whose diverse career has embraced fashion, portraiture, erotica, photography-based fine art and painting. Trained as a painter, he picked up a camera as a young man in the 1980s and quickly became known for his distinctive work in fashion, producing editorial work for elite magazines such as Vogue, Esquire and Vanity Fair, while creating campaigns for some of the most important fashion and beauty brands including Versace, Valentino, Revlon and L’Oreal, as well as innovating the visual identity of Victoria’s Secret.
D’Orazio soon found himself surrounded by the first generation known as “supermodels,” and his pictures, marked by their uniquely intimate rapport with his subjects, were instrumental in establishing the legendary status of such women as Christy Turlington, Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell, Kristen McMenamy, Linda Evangelista, Georgina Grenville, Eva Herzigova, Claudia Schiffer, Helena Christensen, James King and Kate Moss. What was his secret? In addition to possessing a classicist’s eye, he seemed uniquely unafraid of the most attractive women in the world.
D’Orazio’s gift for maximizing the beauty of even the most beautiful people led to a portraiture practice that continues today. His subjects include Al Pacino, Johnny Depp, Sharon Stone, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Anthony Kiedis, Sean Penn, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Keith Richards, Roman Polanski, John Travolta, Susan Sarandon, and such artists as Jeff Koons, Damien Hirst, Francesco Clemente, Phillip Taaffe, Matthew Barney, Alex Katz, Julian Schnabel, Ed Ruscha, Nobuyoshi Araki, George Condo and Maurizio Cattelan.
In shooting during the pre-digital age, D’Orazio, like most of his peers, took Polaroids to test exposure and composition. Often these Polaroids have a special quality of light and tone that makes them extraordinary works in their own right. Perhaps there’s something about the casual, throwaway spirit of the shot itself that imparts a particularly poignant and unique spirit—as if the shot itself knew that it was one-of-a-kind, a true original.
How did the Bible put it? “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.” Not that any of these extraordinary test shots was rejected, but they are remarkable, unique byproducts of evanescent moods, captured moments of magic that often outshines the intended work.
Sante D’Orazio Legends (Polaroids) opens March 3, 2015.